On A Positive Note: School Community Rallies Around Cafeteria Aide After Daughter Passes Away

A school community stepped up when one of their own needed it the most. When Sheila Furman, a Fieldstone Middle School lunch aide, shared news that her daughter passed away from cancer, school staff stepped in to take over lunch serving duties so that the kitchen staff could rally around their co-worker and lend her emotional support at the funeral. "You would never know that she was carrying this heavy burden with her. Often times she would be at the hospital all night and come to work the next day with a smile on her face," Natalie Santopietro, Fieldstone Middle School principal, said.

On a Positive Note

It's a regular lunch period here at Fieldstone Middle School in North Rockland Pizza Friday. Nothing special until you realize who's serving it. Does anybody want salad? The teachers, what would you like sweetie? They're giving up, they're prepping their lunch to be here and serve the students. They're serving lunch so that the cafe staff can go support one of their own on a day she needs it the most. Sheila Furman has been a familiar and comforting face in the cafeteria for more than 20 years. Her daughter passed away last week from cancer. You would never know that she was carrying this, this, you know, heavy burden with her oftentimes she would be at the hospital all night and I'm sorry, and come to work the next day with a smile on her face. Greeting everybody. How's your day? Making sure that all of our needs were met despite what she was facing. So today on the day of her daughter's funeral teachers doing double duty teaching and serving lunch so that all of the ladies in the cafeteria that worked with Sheila could go and attend her services with her and be there for her. What it means to me to do this for her is for me to almost be like her. And that's what I want. I want to be like Sheila. I think that's, that's the goal in life to be like someone like Sheila Furman just goes to show how much Sheila means to this whole building. And to me forget about it, there are many lessons that kids learn in school if you could do something to help someone out do it. But it's lessons like these that are truly, I think life learning experiences.